Sniffer dogs help RER

SNIFFER dogs are being used on Paris public transport to check suspect packages, which cause increasing delays.

Transport authority RATP says about seven suspect parcels, luggage or briefcases are found each day and police have to be brought in to decide how to proceed. That can mean shutting the station, refusing to let trains stop or stopping the traffic. Each time it stops traffic for about 40 minutes, leading to two hours of delays. RATP hopes the dogs can halve this.Six months of tests will be run on 40 Métro and RER stations, mostly around the central section of RER A.